ir
types, and in his privately printed Sandars Lectures presenting a
detailed account of their work, based on the personal examination of
every book or fragment from their presses which his unwearied diligence
has been able to discover. Originality for this period being out of the
question, Mr. Plomer's task was to select, under a constant sense of
obligation, from the mass of details which have been brought together
for this short period, and to preserve due proportion in their
treatment.

Of the work of the printers of the next half-century our knowledge is
much less detailed, and Mr. Plomer might fairly claim that he himself,
by the numerous documents which he has unearthed at the Record Office
and at Somerset House, has made some contributions to it of considerable
value and interest. It is to his credit, if I may say so, that so little
is written here of these discoveries. In a larger book the story of the
brawl in which Pynson's head came so nigh to being broken, or of John
Rastell's suit against the theatrical costumier who impounded the
dresses used in his private theatre, would form pleasant digressions,
but in a sketch of a large subject there is no room for digressions, and
these personal incidents have been sternly ignored by their discoverer.
Even his first love, Robert Wyer, has been allotted not more than six
lines above the space which is due to him, and generally Mr. Plomer has
compressed the story told in the _Typographical Antiquities_ of Ames,
Herbert, and Dibdin with much impartiality.

When we pass beyond the year 1556, which witnessed the incorporation of
the Stationers' Company, Mr. Arber's _Transcripts_ from the Company's
Registers become the chief source of information, and Mr. Plomer's pages
bear ample record of the use he has made of them, and of the numerous
documents printed by Mr. Arber in his prefaces. After 1603, the date at
which Mr. Arber discontinues, to the sorrow of all bibliographers, his
epitome of the annual output of the press, information is far less
abundant. After 1640 it becomes a matter of shreds and patches, with no
other continuous aid than Mr. Talbot Reed's admirable work, _A History
of the Old English Letter Foundries_, written from a different
standpoint, to serve as a guide. His own researches at the Record Office
have enabled Mr. Plomer to enlarge considerably our knowledge of the
printers at work during the second half of the seventeenth century, but
when the Stat